Sue:  The mother should ask the specialist:  "If the baby is allergic to
something in my milk, why can't I try to remove it from my diet and keep
on breastfeeding?"  It seems to me that unless the baby is sick or not
thriving, dietary restriction in the mother - cow's milk protein being the
most likely culprit - is far better than
switching to "hypoallergenic" abm (remember, there have been cases of
anaphylaxis in cow's milk-allergic babies even with these
"hypoallergenic" abm's).  You say that you have Ruth Lawrence's book
as a reference, so you can provide her with info from p. 434 which clearly
states that restriction of cow's milk products from mothers' diets
resolved the problem.
If you look at Chris Hafner-Eaton's July 9 post, as
well as going through the archives on this subject, you'll get a lot more
details on this topic.  It's interesting that of the cases of
protein-induced colitis mentioned in Dr. Lawrence's text, 7 were
abm-fed, 6 were breastfed (five of them had been supplemented). So one
could say that abm was probably the cause in 12 out of 13 cases.
If this specialist needs someone to contact, the obvious person is our
very own Maryelle VonLanthen, peds gastroenterologist extraordinaire.
Good luck, Alicia Dermer, MD, who is getting so tired of people for whom
the first solution to any problem is abm.